Finishing stitches where there is no laid stitch to hide them AND a BONUS clip at the very end. A sneak peak of a gorgeous and vibrant antique sampler that HATS will be reproducing.

PLEASE NOTE: there is a difference in visibility between the two pin stitches. The one that the needle has split the laid stitch on the front is a much better finish. The other one has pushed the laid stitch to the side. Practice and play around with how your manipulate your needle. This is nit picking but there is a slight difference that I feel is worth going the extra to achieve. 

Please click HERE

 

Yesterday evening we had a discussion in the Facebook group about the stitch path for the first row. You need three separate passes. You can work them from right to left or left to right.

You CANNOT carry your thread on all three passes. With certain combinations you can carry your thread once. This is due to how you need to finish the stitches at the beginning and end of the row to replicate MH’s stitching.

I found starting and ending with a minute pin stitch the easiest using 100/3.

 

 

 

We have set up a closed Facebook Group for stitchers to share their journey as they travel with needle and thread through the numerous and beautiful reversible bands of MH 1656 ~ My Beloved’s Gift.

Starting November 1st 2018 and at monthly intervals thereafter Nicola will post photographs of the bands of the sampler as she has stitched them. Whilst not a workshop Nicola will share some tips and tricks along the way. There will not be detailed stitching notes as the graph in the HATS booklet is detailed and well annotated.

However, if a member has a question or needs help Nicola will try her best to assist. Questions can be raised in the group or Nicola can be privately messaged.

To join the group please click HERE

 

A beautiful piece of of First World War embroidery has been discovered in chest of drawers in Stoke-on-Trent. It was created by soldiers in 1917 to help them get over their experiences in the trenches.

 

Hands Across the Sea Samplers are thrilled to present to you our latest reproduction – the beautiful Esther Benson 1739. 

Nicola was commissioned by Kimberley Young  to reproduce a sampler exclusively for Sassy Jacks Stitchery. This is a particularly beautiful and unusual sampler both for the scenes portrayed and the colours used. 

Nearly two hundred and eighty years ago a 9 year old girl put the last stitches into her sampler recording “Done by me Esther Benson aged of 9 year 1739 at London”.

There are two pictorial bands, the first is a beautiful Adam and Eve scene that is crammed full of animals, birds, stars, the moon and the sun. The Tree of Knowledge with the serpent twined on the trunk is in the centre of Adam and Eve. Esther has depicted Eve, who has succumbed to the serpent and eaten an apple from the tree, tempting Adam. To the right there is a sun representing day, whilst to the left is a crescent moon representing night. This is unusual as the moon is traditionally associated with the feminine and the sun with the masculine

The second pictorial band of Esther’s sampler is symmetrical in design and features 2 angels with trumpets, signifying that they are the voice of God, above a domed ecclesiastical building that is flanked by two oversized shrubs. It is in this building that the sampler shows its age and there has been thread loss. When we first saw this temple we initially thought that it was connected to Solomon’s Temple. However, this was to change when another sampler came into our collection that had the same building. This sampler’s near identical building bore a name – “The Temple of Fame”. After extensive research , we found that there was no connection to Solomon’s Temple and that our Temple had its own very interesting story that travels down the centuries. The story of the Temple of Fame goes back to 1379 when Geoffrey Chaucer, known as the Father of English.

The model was exquisitely stitched by Suzanne Sirotti in Australia.

We had great fun working with Kimberley on this project. Esther’s 32 page booklet booklet has much historical information. When researching her we were whisked back to a fascinating period in the history of London and we hope you enjoy the journey back in time too when stitching Esther.

Booklets, special cuts of linen in assorted counts and threads packs of DMC, AVAS d’Alger or NPI are available HERE

A comprehensive online workshop is also available through Sassy Jacks Stitchery.

I will be leading a Stitch-a-Long for the beautiful band sampler MH 1656 – My Beloved’s Gift. The SAL will start in November and I will be posting a band a month. Whilst this will not be a workshop as such,  I will be sharing tips and tricks along the way and helping those stitching with me. For more information about the sampler please visit her webpage HERE

I will not be setting up a separate Facebook Page but will post each month in Our Samplers Years and the HATS Facebook page and the HATS blog on our website.

 

I am so thrilled to present to my stitching sisters my finish of the reversible band sampler “Bathya” (you will need to click on the photos for them to open fully).

Every single stitch has been a joy. To achieve a truly reversible finish much thought and planning has had to go into each band. It has been like a jigsaw puzzle. A brain challenge !! However, once the stitch path was worked out my needle flew.

Bathya is a very special sampler with an amazing history -please see this video where Witney Antiques talk about the sampler shortly into the film.

She is also featured in many reference books.

Would you like learn how I stitched Bathya?

I will only be teaching Bathya on three occasions – the first in November at Fobbles in Cumbria, England.

As soon as the workshop was announced it was immediately oversubscribed so I will be running a back to back workshop. There are a handful of places left on Monday/Tuesday, November 4th/5th, 2018. Contact Beverley Trembath sooner rather than later if you are interested in attending.

The only other occasion I will be teaching Bathya is on a visit to the US probably in June 2019. This will be at Sassy Jacks Stitchery and The Attic Needleworks.

Bathya stitched her sampler with 15 vibrant shades of silks, ingeniously devising stitch patterns and motifs. These colours are taken from the front !!!

There is so much to delight in her sampler. She used a wide repertoire of stitches of varying intricacy. The stitches include two different versions of reversible cross stitch; one forms a cross on the reverse with a vertical stitch on the left and the other a four sided stitch on the reverse.

She also used double back stitch and diagonal double back stitch. These stitches appear plaited from the front and as two parallel rows of back stitch on the reverse, you might know them as closed herringbone.

Other stitches used were double sided Italian stitch; alternating double back stitch in groups of three, which represents the Trinity; detached buttonhole; french knots and satin stitch.

Bathya’s whitework bands are particularly elegant. Narrow whitework bands were an important part of a stitcher’s repertoire, they were used on collar bands both as an adornment and as stiffening so that the collars would stand proud.

If you would like to learn the techniques needed to re-create this stunning sampler please contact either:

Beverley at Fobbles in the UK
Kimberly Young at Sassy Jacks Stitchery in North Carolina
Jean Lea at The Attic Needleworks in Arizona